Bluffton High School won the Northwest Conference 2013-14 “Don Bachman Award of Excellence” for the first time with a strong finish in the spring sports season.
This award recognizes the school in the conference that exhibits the highest level of consistent excellence in conference-sponsored sports and scholastic bowl competition.
The Pirates compiled a total of 80.5 points to defeat Crestview (79) in a close race. Columbus Grove finished third with 70 points. For the first time in the history of the award all league schools had at least one championship/co-championship.
The award was started during the 2005-06 school year to honor longtime Northwest Conference commissioner/secretary, Don Bachman, who served in that position for more than 30 years before his death in late in 2005.
This year Bluffton earned NWC titles in girls' soccer and baseball. In addition to the co-championship in baseball, the Pirates had a second place finish in boys' track, were co-runner-ups in softball and finished third in girls track during the spring. These finishes enabled Bluffton to surpass Crestview in the end of the year standings.
Other NWC champions/co-champions were Ada (football) Allen East (boys' golf, girls' soccer), Columbus Grove (volleyball, boys'/girls' track), Crestview (football, boys' basketball, girls' basketball, baseball, softball, scholastic bowl), Delphos Jefferson (football), Lincolnview (boys' cross country), Paulding (wrestling) Spencerville (girls' cross country),
The final order of finish for the 2013-14 school year is as follows:
Bluffton 80.5
Crestview 79.0
Columbus Grove 70.0
Spencerville 63.5
Allen East 59.5
Lincolnview 57.0
Delphos Jefferson 49.0
Ada 41.5
Paulding 40.0
